This dissertation explores the life and work of a philosophy of education and multicultural education teacher, through the use of narrative inquiry. As a Palestinian/Lebanese Canadian researcher, teacher, mother, activist and writer, I present the journey of freeing myself from colonial grand narratives through the construction of my personal, practical knowledge and values, while providing an answer to the question: "What does it mean to be situated on the boundary between the English West and the Middle Eastern Arab world?" I demonstrate how the Orientalist tradition, as defined by Edward Said (1978), served to confuse, frustrate, and alienate me as an embodied person situated within a web of historical, ethnic, linguistic, social, and cultural tensions. I describe how, having been educated in an English missionary school in the context of a Palestinian culture of dispossession and Diaspora, this education served to paradoxically both estrange and enrich me. I demonstrate how narrative inquiry, modeled after Clandinin and Connelly (1995, 2000), has enabled me to understand and communicate who I really am as an educator in the multiple social contexts I have known. Through story-ing my epistemology, I illustrate how the Canon in philosophy and the grand meta-narratives underpinning it served to oppress and alienate me over the years. I emphasize that education is not value-neutral. My autobiographical writing in this dissertation explores how the constructs of ethnicity, gender, religion, culture, language, and class serve to shape thinking and values. Since I believe that who we are is a blend of the personal and the social, and that 'we teach who we are,' I critically assess my experiences and share aspects of that experience that have empowered me as a female, Palestinian educator. Going back and forth, and in and out of my life, narrating it and commenting critically on it in the three-dimensional space of narrative inquiry, I convey what I mean by the statement "the personal is political" and what was involved in the process of seeking freedom from the bondage of intellectual subservience. My voice and my signature (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) within the text reveal what I mean pedagogically by a dynamic curriculum and a transformative education. Methodologically, this dissertation extends the boundaries of narrative inquiry through a nuanced use of auto-ethnography while providing insight into the life of a Palestinian teacher and writer within the Canadian context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.102796 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Costandi, Samia. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Culture and Values in Education.) |
| Rights | © Samia Costandi, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002594291, proquestno: AAINR32168 |
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